Stocks were indicated to open sharply lower on Monday on continued trade war fears. Despite last week’s selling pressure, stocks are still relatively close to all-time highs in the major indexes. The bull market is now well over 10 years old, and investors should be considering exactly how they want their portfolios and assets positioned for the second half of 2019 and beyond.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new ideas for traders and long-term investors alike. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other analyst calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
We have provided these calls in a quick-hit summary for easy reading, and additional comments and trading data have been added on some of them. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters) sell-side research service.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations on Monday, August 5, 2019.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA | BABA Price Prediction) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $216 target price (versus a $161.00 prior close) at Jefferies. Shares closed down 2.8% on Friday and were indicated to open down another 3.5% at $155.21 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $129.77 to $195.72. The consensus target price is $216.22.
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Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $132 target price (versus a $107.76 close) at Jefferies. It was indicated down 3.3% at $104.25 on Monday. Baidu has a consensus target price of $158.18 and a 52-week trading range of $106.80 to $235.80.
Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and the target price was raised to $72 from $68 at Wells Fargo.
Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE: BX) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $56 target price (versus a $46.62 close) at Barclays. The stock was indicated down 2.35 at $45.60 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $26.88 to $49.81 and with a prior consensus target price of $51.82.
Carlyle Group L.P. (NASDAQ: CG) was started as Equal Weight with a $25 target at Barclays.
CDW Corp. (NASDAQ: CDW) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target price was cut to $73 from $100 (versus a $67.89 close) at UBS.
Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank. It was down 0.8% at $96.87 on Friday and was indicated down 2.2% at $94.70 on Monday.
Ferrari N.V. (NYSE: RACE) was raised to Buy from Hold at Societe Generale.
GlycoMimetics Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) was down 1.3% at $9.13 on Friday, but the shares were down 50% at $4.50 on Monday after reports the top-line results from Pfizer’s Phase 3 clinical trial in sickle cell disease. Jefferies downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey downgraded it to Hold from Buy and Piper Jaffray downgraded to Neutral from Overweight.
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International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was reiterated as Buy and the price objective was raised to $170 from $165 at Merrill Lynch. Nomura/Instinet reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target price to $175 from $165. IBM closed down 2% at $147.25 on Friday and was indicated down 1.5% at $145.02 on Monday. The 52-week range is $105.94 to $154.36, and the consensus target price is $149.60.
KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR) was started as Equal Weight with a $29 target at Barclays.
LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE: LYB) was maintained as Buy but the price objective was lowered to $98 from $110 at Merrill Lynch.
MediWound Ltd. (NASDAQ: MDWD) was started as Buy with a $5.50 price target at H.C. Wainwright, implying more than 100% upside from the $2.59 share price for this $70 million microcap biotech.
Owens-Illinois Inc. (NYSE: OI) was raised to Neutral from Sell with a $13 target (versus a $12.38 close) at Goldman Sachs.
Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. (NYSE: OEC) was down 15% to $15.42 on Friday, and Loop Capital downgraded it to Hold from Buy and cut its target to $17 from $29.
PBF Energy Inc. (NYSE: PBF) was raised to Neutral from Sell with a $27 target price (versus a $24.50 close) at Goldman Sachs.
Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.
Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank. Shares closed down 1.35 at $81.52 on Friday and were indicated to open down 1.4% at $80.36 on Monday, with continued trade war and tariff fears hitting the stock. Target had an $88.83 consensus target price, and its 52-week trading range is $60.15 to $90.39.
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Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) was hammered last week after a loss, layoffs and lower production targets, although shares did recover 2% to $11.06 on Friday. Raymond James maintained it as Strong Buy but cut its target price to $25 from $35.
WideOpenWest Inc. (NYSE: WOW) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE: WMB) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein. The stock closed down about 2% at $25.01 on Friday and was indicated down 2.7% at $24.32 on Monday, and it had a prior consensus target price of $31.16 and a 52-week trading range of $20.36 to $32.22.
XPO Logistics Inc. (NYSE: XPO) was reiterated as Outperform and the target price was raised to $78 from $68 at Raymond James.
Friday’s top analyst calls included Shopify, Qualcomm, Pinterest, Sprouts Farmer’s Market, BlackLine, Fortinet, Carbon Black and many more.
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